kelvin@ut-sally.UUCP (Kelvin Thompson) (09/07/85)
_The_Color_Purple_
by Kelvin Thompson
_The_Color_Purple_ is a GREAT movie!! Director Steven Spielberg (_1941_)
has done what the cynics said was impossible -- he has topped himself
with his latest comedy/action/adventure/drama.
As with many of Spielberg's previous films, _Purple_ opens with a bang --
literally. A day laborer in the rural Dixie South of the late 1910's
asks his fourteen-year-old daughter Celie to come into his bedroom to cut
his hair. She looks a little nervous (she asks him if he wouldn't rather
go out on the porch, where she usually cuts his hair), but agrees to do
it. Halfway through the haircut, however, her father shows that he has
another kind of "do it" in mind, and proceeds to rape her.
But not before what has got to be the most exciting single-room chase
scene in the history of film. Celie bolts for the door, but her father
tackles her in the doorway. Spielberg's ever-mobile camera tracks Celie's
nails as she is dragged back into the room, and the door slammed behind
her. Celie and her father then chase one another around the room,
destroying every stick of furniture, until Celie is finally subdued.
Afterward, the haircut continues, lending a symmetry to the scene and
giving the viewer a chance to catch his breath.
And, impossible as it may seem, the action picks up after this incredible
opening. Through an artful montage sequence, Spielberg communicates that
the opening scene is repeated many times over the following years, with
Celie often running interference for her younger sisters. Eventually
Celie has two babies by her father, and Spielberg sets a suitably spooky
mood as the father heads into the woods to destroy the babies after each
birth.
But the bulk of the movie concerns Celie and her sister Nettie after they
leave home. Celie's father marries her off to one of his buddies, Adolph
Caesar (_A_Soldier's_Story_), and Nettie goes to Africa to tame the
natives. The movie has a more intricate plot than Spielberg has produced
in a while -- Celie falls in love with an old flame of Caesar's, Rae Dawn
Chong (_Quest_for_Fire_, _Beat_Street_), and Caesar's son and
daughter-in-law get pulled into the story -- but Spielberg always keeps
up the pace: Nettie fights pirahna fish and runaway bulldozers; Celie
masterminds a daring jailbreak for one of her friends; Chong, who plays a
nightclub singer, brings down the house with a couple of show-stopping
Broadway-style production numbers.
Which is not to say there are not some slower sequences to lend a rhythm
to the film. Several times the viewer is treated to some comic relief as
Caesar plays punch to Celie's Judy. And, late in the film, there is a
touching film where Celie kneels beside her father's grave and tearfully
forgives him for the hurt he caused her.
But, as the viewer expects, Spielberg brings the movie to a smashing,
fever-pitch conclusion. On Nettie's way back from Africa, a Kraut U-boat
torpedoes her luxury liner. The ship goes belly up, Nettie is trapped
below decks, everything looks utterly hopeless, and then.... But that
would be telling. Let's just say that viewers who liked _Close_
_Encounters_ and _Cocoon_ will thoroughly enjoy the ending of this
consistently outstanding film.render@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA (09/10/85)
I know that I should not take any aspect of Thompson's reviews seriously,
but has "The Color Purple" actually been completed and released? If so,
when will it see general distribution? The last I had heard, the movie was
still in the initial stages of planning/production.
Hal Render
{pur-ee, ihnp4} ! uiucdcs ! render
render@uiuc.csnet render@uiuc.arparobertsl@stolaf.UUCP (Laurence C. Roberts) (09/11/85)
> > I know that I should not take any aspect of Thompson's reviews seriously, > but has "The Color Purple" actually been completed and released? If so, > when will it see general distribution? The last I had heard, the movie was > still in the initial stages of planning/production. > Hal Render > {pur-ee, ihnp4} ! uiucdcs ! render > render@uiuc.csnet render@uiuc.arpa According to an article in the latest issue of Publisher's Weekly, the movie is to be released in December. Kelvin had a fairly good description of casting, but he might have got wrong who Rae Dawn Chong is playing (she plays Shrimp, not Shug Avery. A woman with the real last name of Avery, some Chicago tv personality, plays Shug.) Alice Walker is pretty involved with the production, but with a white male scriptwriter and director... -- Laurence Roberts ...ihnp4!stolaf!robertsl I bet that J. S. Bach never wore legwarmers.
dsmith@osiris.Uiuc.ARPA (09/11/85)
I believe that The Color Purple will be released in December.
hhs@hou2h.UUCP (H.SHARP) (09/12/85)
From the Washington (DC) Post: the movie is scheduled for a Christmas release. I know several people, including myself, who are extremely curious to see what this movie is going to be.